Virginia Board Considers Raising Graduation Requirements

Virginia state officials are considering changes in graduation
requirements that would increase the number of credits students must
obtain in basic subjects and put college-bound students in a separate
academic program.

The state board of education last month held hearings on the
proposals, which are similar to the proposals of the National
Commission on Excellence in Education. The board will probably vote on
a revised version of the plan in July, officials said.

The proposals of Superintendent of Public Instruction S. John Davis
differ little from a previous plan developed by a committee appointed
by Mr. Davis. The superintendent's standards proposals are considered
more rigorous than those of the panel, however.

The Virginia Education Association (vea), which represents 42,000
teachers in the state, has taken no formal position on the proposals.
The organization's president, Brenda Cloyd, said it would oppose
changes that would weaken fine-arts and vocational-education
programs.

Under Mr. Davis's plan, all students would be required to complete
20 credits of study, including two courses in both mathematics and
science and one additional course in either area.

Students now must complete 18 credit-hours and one year in both
fields, as well as four years of English, three years of social
studies, and two years of health and physical education.

Students who plan to attend college would be required to complete a
total of 22 credits, including three credits in both mathematics and
science and two credits in a foreign language.

Each credit represents 150 hours of classroom time, officials said,
so the proposal would increase the total instruction time by at least
300 hours for students not planning to attend college and 600 hours for
students planning to attend college.

Students would be required at the end of the 8th grade to indicate
whether they plan to attend college.

Mr. Davis said the main purpose of the plan is to prepare students
for a technology-oriented business world. Although the proposal would
require schools to provide "educational experiences with computer
technology," there is no specific course requirement in computers. The
computer instruction could take place at any grade level.

"That is such a changing field that we figured that anything we
wrote would be inappropriate in maybe a year," said Robert B. Jewell,
the supervisor of secondary-school accreditation.

Officials from organizations representing music and vocational
education said the proposals might leave students with too little time
to pursue outside interests.

Under the current requirements, students can take at least seven
credits of elective courses. Under the superintendent's proposals,
college-bound students would be able to take at least five electives
and other students would be able to take at least six.

Despite the attention given the graduation standards, said Mr.
Jewell, "the real meat" of the proposal involves provisions that would
urge local districts to adopt curriculum and discipline standards.

Those provisions would encourage schools to reduce classroom
interruptions, improve inservice training of teachers, provide
recognition to exceptional students, and involve students in the care
and maintenance of school campuses.

The guidelines would also ask districts to establish guidelines for
academic eligibility for extracurricular activities and require all
students to be in class for at least five and one-half credits per day
regardless of whether they have completed their minimum
requirements.

Local districts also would be urged to regularly inform students of
academic goals and their progress in meeting those goals.

Since 1980, several committees of the education department have been
developing lists of academic goals in eight areas for each grade. The
areas are mathematics, language arts, social studies, health, science,
fine arts, foreign languages, and physical education.

Education-department committees have already devised the goals for
the first four areas and expect to complete drafting recommendations
for assessment this summer. The goals for the other areas are still
being developed.

The board will consider revisions in the proposal at its June 23
meeting and take final action next month.

In an unrelated development, a survey by the vea found that only
one-third of the state's school districts would try to follow a General
Assembly recommendation to increase teachers' salaries by 9.7
percent.

Ms. Cloyd, the union's president, said that twice as many districts
increased salaries last year.

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